Borrowed Light

Blogging as Manna

June 19, 2013Mike Leake

John Newton extracted this principle from the Israelite’s hoarding of manna:

The truths by which the soul is fed,
Must thus be had afresh;
For notions resting in the head,
Will only feed the flesh.

However true, they have no life,
Or unction to impart;
They breed the worms of pride and strife,
But cannot cheer the heart.

Nor can the best experience past,
The life of faith maintain;
The brightest hope will faint at last,
Unless supplied again.

We need a daily supply of grace. Newton firmly believed that with each new day we must encounter the God of grace anew. Otherwise we will wither. We cannot maintain a life of faith drawing on yesterday’s manna. Our God is a daily God.

Blogging is often used by God to bring us our daily manna.

If you aren’t aware of this (and at home with this) as a blogger you will get burned. 95% of what you write will disappear into the wasteland only a few hours after your write it. A few people will read it. Some will feast. Others will skip right over it looking for bread elsewhere. And then it’s gone.

If you write to be epic blogging will be a discouraging enterprise. For every article that has decent reach you will write a hundred more that only your mom will retweet. Such is the nature of manna. It seldom seems like much at the time but it is subtly sustaining people in their walk with Christ.

Therefore, write to give people daily grace. Be comfortable that at most you will only be used by God to sustain someone for the day.

Now there is one sense in which blogging is nothing like manna. In actuality what you write doesn’t appear into the ether. It gets swallowed up and stored somewhere in Al Gore’s basement—forever able to be accessed. In this sense what you write doesn’t get maggots and eventually disappear. It stays forever.

While it is true that our blog articles usually vanish from people’s minds this does not mean that we do not need to be careful and Christ-honoring with all of our words. What we say stays forever. And therefore we blog with an eternal perspective all the while knowing that the Lord is simply using us at times to provide daily grace.

Today in Blogworld 06.19.13

June 19, 2013Mike Leake

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Thabiti says, “yes”, and I agree.

7 Disastrous Results of Letting Your Personal Fulfillment Drive Your Ministry

Sadly, “pastors often use ministry for their own personal fulfillment and success”. Eric McKiddie offers 7 results.

How to Ask for Forgiveness

This is helpful.

We Are A Kanye

Odd Thomas reflects on Kanye’s newest album and song “I Am A God”.

This can save you some time folding laundry (or help you if you get a job at a clothing store):

7 Reasons Preachers Should Spend Time Preaching to Teenagers

June 18, 2013Mike Leake

I have been preaching to teenagers for about ten years now. Truthfully, I’m probably more suited to teaching/preaching to adults that teens. I am not your typical youth pastor. But I love teens and I love preaching the gospel to them. I believe that my time spent with teenagers helps me to better preach to adults*.

Here are seven reasons why preachers should spend some time preaching to teenagers:

It forces simplicity. In sermon prep I constantly ask myself if I can say something more simply. This helps me to give any audience the fruit of my labor and not the sweat.
It helps with illustrations. I am terrible at illustrations. Working with teenagers has helped me to only be terrible and not abysmal.
It prepares me for questions. Teens will ask silly questions. And teens will ask amazing questions. I consider inquisitive teenagers with every sermon I preach.
It keeps me from assuming an audience. It has been said that people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. This is very true with teenagers. You have to win their hearts before their ears. I never assume that I have an audience and this forces me to spend time thinking about a “hook” every week.
It forces focus. When preaching through a difficult passage of Scripture it can be tempting to get lost in all the debates. Preaching to youth reminds me to focus on what really matters and save the intellectual debates for scholars.
It is fun. When teenagers know that you love them they are quick to listen. Their questions and their vigor makes for a ton of fun.
They respond and often awkwardly. Teenagers will often immediately respond to a sermon. And they often respond awkwardly. This forces me to be intentional in the way that I aim for response. I don’t ever assume that they will apply the sermon in a fitting way.

I would encourage every preacher of the gospel to spend some time preaching to teenagers—at least a few times every year. Few things will hone your preaching skills like ministering to teens.

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*I want to say here that I do not—nor have I ever—viewed ministering to teenagers as a stepping stone to the “big show”. If you view preaching to teens as merely a means to an end they will see right through it, and frankly such a view is dishonoring to Jesus. Having said that, preaching to teens is great preparation for preaching to adults.